Today, we’re paying tribute to another eventing legend who’s left a big hole in our hearts. European champion and Olympic medalist Laura Collett announced this week that Mr Bass — the horse that proved to be a real warrior at the upper levels and was what Laura often referred to as the best cross country horse she’d ever ridden — has passed away at the age of 18.
Laura posted a tribute on her social media:
“MR BASS ❤️ 🕊️ (gone but never forgotten 🥺)
From the first day I saw you as a barely broken and unnamed 4yo, I knew you were always going to be special 🫶
Your cheeky and over confident character earned you your name – MR “Chuck” BASS 🤣 (If you know, you know!)
Christmas Day as a 4yo you jumped the top of the wings, you flew round the most enormous Team Chase as a just turned 5yo, you were used to help coach the jockeys, you were 7yo World Champion, you finished on your Dressage score in 5/5 at 4* level as an 8yo, you were the only horse to finish on your Dressage score on your 5* debut for 🥈, you literally bolted with me round Badminton 5* XC … you simply were an absolute LEGEND 🚀
You never failed to make us all smile even though you had the ability to make us all look like we’d never handled a horse before 🤣
Thank you for everything Chuckles 😘 I will miss you every day”
Mr Bass, who was owned by laura as well as Nick How and Keith Scott, enjoyed a fruitful international career, highlighted by a win in the Young Horse World Breeding Championships at Le Lion d’Angers in 2015 and a podium in his then-CCI4* debut at Luhmühlen in 2018 (the only horse in the field to finish on his dressage score, as well). In 34 FEi starts, he rarely finished outside of the top 5, proving to be a dedicated partner to Laura until his retirement from top sport in 2021.
Our thoughts are with Laura and the team behind “Chuck”.
US Events This Weekend
Pine Top Advanced: [Website] [Entries/Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Three Lakes Winter II HT at Caudle Ranch: [Entries/Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Links & Reading
- La Biosthetique Sam FBW Leaves A Towering Legacy
- Only 20% of Abuse Reports Merit Investigation by FEI
- Smart Winter-Weather Training: When Is It Too Cold to Safely Ride?
- Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: Keep It Simple (Stupid)
Training Tip of the Day
A few reasons why Canadian team rider Dana Cooke likes to incorporate trotting jumps on a loose rein. Here’s a peek at the first two (more in the caption of the post embedded below):
1. Horses need their head and neck to jump – being on a loose rein gives them the freedom to fully use their head and neck through the jump.
2. Trotting fences teaches them to slow down and learn how to use their body which helps them to improve their shape over the fence!
Go Eventing
A snapshot of eventing’s original “long” format, which consisted of a long section of “roads and tracks” at two stages before the part of cross country that we know today. This footage comes to us from 1985:
